Certain Spears

There are no guarantees in life, and that extends, of course, to crossword puzzles. Some solvers believe that the trajectory of difficulty between the Monday and Saturday puzzles should be a straight line but, like the goals we set for ourselves in life, things don’t always work that way.

With all of the words and phrases in existence (as well as those just entering the lexicon), and all of the theme tricks that constructors conjure up, it’s hard to say exactly what makes a Tuesday puzzle a Tuesday puzzle. In theory, at least, it should be slightly harder than a Monday, but scheduling puzzles is an art, not a science. There are many variables that could possibly kick a crossword to the middle of the week, and one person’s tough as nails puzzle could be right in another person’s wheelhouse, so I don’t judge. I take each puzzle on its own.

So what really makes a puzzle qualify for assignment to a specific day of the week? I asked the editor, Will Shortz, for his thoughts on this:

“After doing today’s puzzle, Deb remarked to me that it felt hard for a Tuesday. And after thinking about this some more, I’ve decided she might be right.

“Tuesdays are supposed to fall on the easy side of the difficulty spectrum. Mondays will have straightforward themes and all or mostly easy vocabulary. Tuesdays and Wednesdays can have a little thematic playfulness, such as letter rearranging or puns, as well as a few harder words. (These two days are the hardest to separate.) Thursdays tend to have trickier themes and/or more wide-open grid patterns, which naturally make for harder solving. Fridays and Saturdays, of course, are usually themeless.

“In his manuscript for today’s puzzle, John Lieb had circles around the D’s in ODD DUCKS, the E’s in FREE EMAIL, etc. These made the theme fairly obvious. So when accepting the puzzle, Joel and I slated it for a Tuesday.

“However, as a general matter, circles in grids have become overdone, and I like to avoid them unless it’s necessary for theme clarity. So during the editing process Joel and I decided to remove the circles here. We figured solvers will get the puzzle’s theme without them.

“Perhaps so. But then perhaps this change bumped the puzzle up to Wednesday difficulty, and the day should have been adjusted accordingly. If so, I’m sure you’ll let us know.

“As you can see, assigning a particular day of the week to a puzzle is more an art than a science. Sometimes we goof. But then every solver is different anyway. A puzzle that one person finds unusually hard, another may find unusually easy. It depends on what you know, how quickly you grok the tricky clues, even your frame of mind.

“In closing, there’s one common misconception I’d like to clear up: The difficulty of a puzzle is not just a matter of how quickly solvers do it. It’s also whether solvers can do it at all. Sometimes a puzzle that’s not particularly hard will, for whatever reason, take a long time to do. I might classify such a puzzle as “easy” even though solvers’ times are high.

“Speed solvers, take note.”

So, there you have it.

John Lieb returns with a puzzle that had a terrific “Aha!” moment for me, even if I did piece it together slowly.

Tricky Clues

63A: Interesting bit of trivia. TIL that there are 17 Monopoly property names with the word AVENUE in them.

32D: Hi, kids! There used to be a phrase that people used to communicate that someone else had a skinny waistline, and they called it a “WASP waist.” My research department tells me this is because wasps (the insects) have skinny waists.

Today’s Theme

Did you notice anything interesting about the theme entries? Each one of them has a tripled consecutive letter, and that’s not all. Those letters spell something, and Mr. Lieb also noticed something terrific about a word that describes them.

Let’s start with the tripled letters. The theme entries are at 1A, 20A, 26A, 45A and 53A. Once you’ve solved them, take each of the tripled letters and put them together, top to bottom: You will have spelled out the word “dents,” like so:

ODDDUCKS = D

FREEEMAIL = E

SUEANNNIVENS = N

PITTTHEELDER = T

DRESSSIZE = S

Now look at the revealer at 66A (I love the fact that Mr. Lieb was able to put both a theme entry at 1A and the revealer in its symmetrical partner, the last Across entry). The clue, “Certain spears … or a curious spelling feature of 1-, 20-, 26-, 45- and 53-Across?” is hinting at the word TRIDENTS, which is exactly what you’ve just solved: TRI, or triple, DENTS.

Which, of course, means it’s time to bring out Steve Martin’s Ruprecht and his trident:

So, not an “easy” puzzle, whatever that means, but a fun one with a great “Aha!” moment.

More thought is required for the theme and perhaps some of the fill than one might expect on a Tuesday, but that’s O.K. This kind of thing keeps us on our toes, as would a jab from a trident. [I like the way you brought that full circle. Kind of. — Ed.]

Constructor Notes

The theme for this puzzle is not obvious (my original submission had circles around the tripled letters) so I wonder if this will feel like a 74-word themeless puzzle with some after the solve head-scratching about the theme. I look forward to hearing what people think.

There are many fun things about getting a puzzle published in The Times, but perhaps my favorite thing is the long-distance cluing tutorial I get from seeing the final product. Comparing what I submitted to what Will, Joel and Sam ultimately come up with is a great lesson in cluing. The subtle and major changes they make always improve things and point to how I could have clued entries more appropriately or pithily (Me: NOOGIE = Headlock accompanier, often, Them: NOOGIE = Unpleasant accompanier of a headlock). I often give a mental fist pump when a fun clue I wrote makes it through intact.

Finally, thanks to KID FLASH for being a thing. Not many things fit the K??F?A?? pattern, and this grid doesn’t happen without him.

The Tipping Point

Almost finished solving but need a bit more help? We’ve got you covered.